Schelling's Paths of Liberation from Pure Reason

F. W. J. Schelling (1775-1854) was a passionate disciple of Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy. Nonetheless, Schelling discerned a problem with the immanentist view of pure reason that Kant established as a result of his philosophical methodology. Kant inaugurated a "crisis" into philosophy, according to Schelling, by restricting reason to pure essences and estranging existence from the philosophical spectrum. This problem is most evident with respect to God. Schelling believed that God's existence was not given proper validation in the system of pure reason, which impelled him to discover ways to the "pure existent," namely, the living God. This article charts out the three paths of liberation from pure reason's stifling grip on essence as it encounters existence in its pure form. In his late philosophy Schelling discusses the events of stupor, astonishment, and ecstasis as avenues leading to a direct experience with existent being. These three events have enormous significance for philosophy, but especially for a new paradigm of philosophy that distances itself from Kantian criticism. It is precisely Schelling's positive philosophy that is proposed as a novel philosophical horizon in the wake of the experiences of stupor, astonishment, and ecstasis.